DJI Mavic 2 Pro Review from ICELAND

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DJI announced the Mavic 2 series of drones with much excitement a few weeks ago. Bloggers all over were excited, as were YouTubers, professional filmmakers, and the blogger you’re reading here as well. I immediately ordered the Mavic 2 Pro bundle that included the Fly More kit as well as DJI Care. It was expensive, sure, but the drone would be worth it, I hoped. I was elated when the drone shipped in time for my trip to Iceland since I figured there was no place better on the planet to test a drone than over Iceland’s incredible and varied landscapes.

The Drone

The actual drone is small but dense. The battery adds most of the heft to the drone but overall it feels well-built, sturdy, and resilient. The legs fold into the body to make transportation easy and efficient, especially with the bag that comes with the Fly More kit.

The propeller blades also fold in half, making the packing footprint of the drone even smaller. When I travel with my Phantom 4 Pro it takes up half of my rollaboard luggage once you add batteries, the remote, and the propeller blades. I can take the Mavic 2 Pro, three batteries, and the remote in literally a quarter of the space!

How does it fly?

Man this thing is such a joy to fly. The previous version of the Mavic always felt slightly underpowered to me and the Mavic Air was so small it just couldn’t fight against too much wind (although it did better than I expected in this regard). I don’t know how they did it but the Mavic 2 Pro flies like the much larger Phantom 4 Pro. The flying dynamics are wonderful, controls are snappy, and the Mavic 2 Pro now has omni-directional obstacle avoidance, which came in handy when I almost flew it directly into a creek because I was a dumb and forgot to give it some altitude.

As you can see above it recognized the ground was coming towards it and the operator was a moron so it stopped itself and gave itself some altitude to prevent the collision.

How are the photos?

You tell me! The camera system is super easy to use and I love having manual controls like I do with my Phantom 4 Pro (the Mavic Air didn’t have manual controls over camera settings).

Somewhere near Kirkjufell in the Snaefellsness Peninsula

Over Djupavik

Looking back at the Krossneslaug geothermal-heated pool

Over Aldeyjarfoss

Near Akureyri

Looking down on the crazy Fjadrargljufur canyon

I wanted to test out the Panorama mode, even though I already knew it worked well based on my experiences with the mode in Norway earlier this year. I figured the majestic Vestrahorn mountain would be a good spot to test it.

Vestrahorn Panorama

How’s the video?

I think it’s pretty dang good! The new hyperlapse mode is amazing and the rest of the functions operated as advertised.

I continue to be amazed at the drone’s ability to keep track of an object using the ActiveTrack mode, like the below:

Be sure to watch the video review above for my actual drone film from Iceland too! I’m pretty proud of it although there are some skipped frames at parts (which I’m still trying to figure out, probably something I messed up while editing it).

Overall thoughts

I love this drone. Image quality is stellar, the video sensor is wonderful, and it’s packed with versatile features. DJI knocked this one out of the park, at least until they announce the Phantom 5 (which is rumored to have interchangeable lenses). For now I think the Mavic 2 Pro is a no-brainer for any serious drone content creator while the Mavic 2 Zoom should be for any serious drone videographer who doesn’t take photos as often.

Good review… and nice footage from Iceland. Sorry to criticize, but during your first shots of you holding the drone, you are out of focus…. but the background is in focus. I see this all the time in other videos…. call it constructive comments….. otherwise, keep up the good work…. Ron

Yep, you’re absolutely correct! I wasn’t shooting with an ND filter and it was so bright that the lens closed down to I think f18. My Sony cameras always seem to backfocus whenever they’re at a super small aperture and it happened here as well. Didn’t notice until it was too late!

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